Clever or original Bulletin Board ideas can be hard to find as the usual ones are overused.   Elementary bulletin boards classroom teachers have the hardest time creating are for reading and writing.  If you are a reading and/or writing teacher, you’ll want to put this one up in your classroom.  It’s a clever way to post students’ writing, and best of all, a bulletin board you can leave up all year, rotating writing assignments.  In addition, it’s one of the best elementary bulletin boards because students will actually read their classmates’ writing from it.   Kids also love to have their own work posted. 

You have to decide how you want to use the board.  It works for connecting reading to writing, so it’s ideal for response to literature essays (book reports).   You also can connect by reading to your students examples of persuasive essays, expository essays, etc., and then posting their original essays.

Bulletin Board Directions:

Cover your bulletin board with robin-egg blue paper.  Preferably, you have a very long bulletin board.  Buy or cut out large, bright-yellow capital letters that read, “Making the Connection” and “Reading Writing,” as well as the number “2″ in black.  You will also need bright yellow, pink, light brown, gray and black construction paper. 

Create a #2 pencil that is one to two feet long, depending on the length of your bulletin board, by first making a long, retanglar ‘pencil’ with the yellow construction paper that is about 3 or 4 inches high.  Next, make a square piece of pink construction paper the same height as the pencil and glue that to the end of the pencil for an eraser.  Then, cut out a skinny rectangle from gray paper and place that as a strip between the pink eraser and the pencil to represent the metal band that holds an eraser to a pencil.  This is the same height as the pencil, as well.  After that, cut out a light brown triangle to glue at the opposite end of the pencil, following with a black triangular tip for the lead.   Finally, take the black number “2″ and glue it to the middle of the pencil. 

Then, at the top of  your bulletin board, center and place the words “MAKING THE CONNECTION”.  Under that, center and place “READING (pencil) WRITING”.  That way, the #2 pencil makes the second line seem like it reads, “READING TO WRITING”.  So, your bulletin board finally reads:

Making the Connection

Reading 2 Writing

with the #2 pencil being the “2″.  Make sure the tip of the pencil is pointing to the right.

Post your students’ writing underneath this phrase, centering and crossing the entire bulletin board, making 2 rows if the board is short.  Regularly replace their essays with the most current writing assignment.

An example of this bulletin board from my classroom is on one of the illustrated pages in my book.  The illustrator had to make the pencil much smaller due to size constraints and didn’t use exactly the colors I used in this description and like my own board in my classroom, but it gives you a general idea.

Spring is almost synonymous with students taking tests from elementary through college entrance exams. Here are some tips that can help students of all ages increase their scores.

1.  Be well hydrated.  Our bodies are 70% water, so your concentration will be at its peak if you are hydrated.  Six to eight glasses a day is recommended.

2.  Get 8 hours of sleep every night.  Elementary students need up to 10.

3.  Limit TV, computer and video game times, especially within 2-3 hours of going to bed.  The mind needs time to be quieted so you rest well.

4.  Eat a healthy diet of protein, fruits and vegetables.

5.  Get outside play and fresh air.

6.  Do some sort of test prep each night.  There are online sites, as well as age- and test-appropriate workbooks you can buy.  The key is to find out WHY you missed any of the questions, and realize your mistake, as well as areas in which you need to study.

7.  Eat a healthy breakfast with protein the day of testing, and limit sugars prior to and during testing days.

8.  Wear bright and comfortable clothing during testing.  Bright colors keep you more aware.  Have a light sweater or sweatshirt you can take on or off depending on the temperature of the room.

9.   Eat a peppermint prior to testing, or breathe in the smell from peppermint oil.  This will keep you more alert.

10.  Have a small amount of caffeine prior to testing to stimulate your brain.  This could be a cup of low- or no-sugar cocoa, cola, or plain coffee.

11.  During testing, make sure you bubble neatly and completely, as well as fully erase mistakes.

12.  Watch the time.  Do not spend too much time on any question.  Take an educated guess, and note on scratch paper which questions you need to check if you have time to revisit questions.

13.  Use “process of elimination” when you aren’t sure of an answer.  That is, cross off the answers you know are incorrect and then take your best guess at the ones that are left.

14.  Use prior knowledge to help you find a correct answer.  Example:  If you need to know what an interrogatory sentence is, you could remember that in mysteries and police shows, the ‘interrogator’ is the one who asks the ‘bad guy’ questions.  So an interrogatory sentence is a questioning sentence.

15.  While you are bubbling, make sure your bubbled answers correspond with each question number.

16.  Review the test to make sure you answered every question.

17.  The MOST IMPORTANT thing to do during testing is to read your directions, questions, and answers several times so that you fully understand what is being asked of you.  Most of these tests are higher-level thinking exams, so the obvious answer to you is often not the correct one as you haven’t properly read the directions or questions.

Good luck!

Keyword: prep test

Doris Thesaurus Lesson Plan

© 2009 Maria L. Corkern

This is a great thesaurus activity for elementary school or middle school teachers. 

Objective:  To help students understand thesaurus usage to give their writing assignments deeper meaning and specificity through purposeful word choice.  This is wonderful for connecting dictionary and thesaurus skills.  Includes language arts enrichment and support activities.

Materials:  Doris TheSaurus, thesaurus, attached thesaurus activity sheet (Thesaurus Word Hunt), attached language arts rubric for grading the activity, paper, highlighters (2 colors), pencil & eraser

Prior Knowledge Needed:  Simple to complex reading and writing, simple dictionary skills, thesaurus definition,  definition of a synonym, alphabetizing, familiarity of fantasy genre, definition of nouns, verbs, and proofreading/editing mark for insertion:  “^”

Lesson Plan:

1. Read aloud Doris TheSaurus.  This will introduce or reinforce thesaurus usage and understanding.  Show student(s) the mini-thesaurus at the back of the book and discuss some of the over-used words listed and the better choices.  Read the ‘just okay’ and ‘much better’ examples.  Explain to students that the blank pages in the back of the book are for them to start writing words that have more vivid meanings as they find them in their day-to-day reading.
2. Students will create a short pre-write of a narrative with the elementary writing prompt: “Write a story about your favorite birthday.”  (If you can, make a copy and save for later use.)
3. Direct students toward simple verbs in their pre-write such as ‘open’.  Students will highlight 5-10 verbs, using one color.
4. Use the pre-write, the attached Thesaurus Word Hunt, and children’s thesaurus to do the following, one word at a time:  Students will write one of their highlighted words in the Your Word column; find the page number of the word in their thesaurus and write that in the Page # column; write the guide words for that page (relate to dictionary guide words) in the Guide Words column; and write an alternative word that gives that sentence deeper meaning or specificity in the New Word column (Example:  open |  p. 164  |  offer  – open |   unwrap).
5. Students will cross off the highlighted words in their pre-write and, using the editing mark: ^, write the newly found words above them.
6. You can repeat these steps using nouns and a different-colored highlighter.
7. Have student(s) write a revision of their narrative inserting the new, higher-level vocabulary, without highlights and editing marks.
8. Compare with the original narrative and have each student read his/hers aloud.  If you did not make a copy, have students try to read through the highlights and editing marks of their original draft.
9. Then, have the student read aloud their revised version.                                             
10. Prompt students to discuss how their synonyms gave deeper meaning and specificity to the story and why.
11. Students will now take their revised version and publish it into a final copy.

Enrichment:  Do the same process with adjectives and adverbs.  Also, some thesauruses have antonyms, so you could have an extension activity of looking up the opposite of words found.

Support:  Shorten the number of nouns and don’t include the verbs.  Have students read revisions from their draft. Assist with final edit and publishing.

Grading: 

Writing Assessment (2 points each): 

            ____ created a pre-write of a narrative

            ____ highlighted at least 5 simple nouns

            ____ highlighted at least 5 simple verbs

            ____ found replacement nouns

____ found replacement verbs

____ student participated in discussion

____ student stayed on task

Thesaurus Word Hunt (2 points each):

____ listed nouns

____ listed thesaurus page numbers

____ listed guide words

____ listed the newly found

____ listed verbs

____ listed thesaurus page numbers

____ listed guide words

____ listed the newly found

____/30 = Grade:  _____

Thesaurus Word Hunt

Your Word      Page #     Guide Words                    New Word